How do you spend your time at work?
It’s mainly spent dealing with customers issuing tenders. There is a lot of co-ordinating and decision-making regarding new customer feature requirements, R&D innovations, and investment.
What’s the one gadget that you can’t live without?
My lighter, as I’m one of the last smokers at Swissphone.
Describe your most unforgettable project.
It was an internal project regarding the acquisition of a company. After the acquisition I realised how difficult it is to bring companies’ culture and people’s expectations together under one roof.
This confirmed for me yet again that business and organisation is all about people and ‘mental’ models, which tend to defy business plans or organisational charts.
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve seen in the sector?
Given that the turnaround for many communication devices is about two to three years, I was really taken aback to have a firefighter demand spare parts for his 14-year-old pager, which had started to go on the blink. This shows how integral our alerting devices are to our customers’ professionalism and daily routines.
What advice would you give to a young engineer who is starting their first job?
Since Swissphone follows a ‘market niche strategy’ with a high level of specialisation and differentiation, the first thing would be to talk to the senior engineers to understand industry drivers and customer demand. Also, listen very carefully to all the market signals, both strong and weak.
How has your role changed since you started in the industry?
The global risks landscape has changed. Terror attacks, blackouts and cybercrime are all too frequent now.
Angelo has 19 years’ experience in public safety, focusing on alerting solutions, command and control, and critical communication. He has a marketing and sales background, having worked for Sony Switzerland, Gelhard/Stinnes and as a member of the executive board at Swissphone Telecom AG.
